Despite finishing dead last in the Western Conference last season, the Colorado Avalanche beat the Detroit Red Wings on the road, improving their record to 6-1-1 and moving to the head of the class.
On the last leg of a seven game road trip that ends Wednesday in Minnesota, the Avs got off to a rough start with off-season, free agent steal Craig Anderson’s first soft goal of the season putting the wings up by one. It’s hard to completely blame Anderson as he went for an instinct-over form type save that left the net wide open.
Blown coverage by T.J. Galiardi had the Wings off to a quick start but Anderson remained solid against an upcoming barrage of shots. Blown passes and strong Wings defense wrapped up the first period for the Avs, with Brett Clark clearing a free puck in an empty crease with twenty seconds left.
Off to a quick start in the second, the Wings scored early again. This time on a redirect by loathed Avalanche foe, Todd ‘It is what it is” Bertuzzi. Foote failed to move the giant goon out of the way and the redirect slipped in five-hole.
Teams have obviously begun to create traffic in front of Anderson, because, as Peter McNabb claims, “If he [Anderson] sees it, he’ll stop it.”
Period three is when the young Avs team really seemed to find the groove of the game. After a couple of huge saves by Anderson, one a snazzy statue-of-liberty snag on Zetterberg, the Burgundy Boys managed to make the board.
Rookie sensation Ryan “Radar” O’Reilly stripped the puck on a poor Wings breakout and dished the pass to Cody McLeod, who burned goaltender Chris Osgood between the legs at 8:06 in the third.
Keeping the momentum up, the Avs poured on the unrelenting pressure. Flying in on the right side, 18-year-old superstar Matt “the Sniper” Duchene fired a laser of a wrist shot goal from high outside the face-off circle. The puck ripped right up inside the far corner, smoking Osgood high on his blocker side; the game now tied 2-2. **
The tie however is short lived, as Anderson gets caught sliding out of the net and the Wings bury the puck in the open net. Not giving up as easily as last year, Cody McLeod retorts, picking up a slot crossing pass from O’Reilly and sending it home on Osgood.
Overtime comes and is shockingly dominated by the Avalanche for the entirety, but no biscuit finds the basket and we move on to the obligatory shootout.
Jason Williams shoots first for the Wings, beating Anderson with a high wrister on the glove side. Marek Svatos responds with a deke backhander high over the falling Osgood blocker.
Henrik Zetterberg puts one into Anderson before Milan Hejduk skates down and similarly blasts a backhander past Osgood again. Leino shoots last, mocking Zetterberg and is stuffed by Anderson for the Avs win.
Things to look for:
Rookies Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene have been picked up for the entire season. This is good news for the Avs as they are both proven producers and add to the hard skating, youth infused demeanor of this revitalized roster.
Peter Budaj is bound to get his first start of the season here soon. Not that I don’t have faith in Anderson’s longevity, but he’ll need a break just to stay healthy. I’d rather take my chances for a game or two with Boods than end up like the Canucks for a stretch last year or the Hawks in the playoffs.
The Avs special teams are starting to shape up nicely this year. After many a woeful season ranked last for both power play and penalty kill, the Boys are managing some outstanding statistics. All of this without a special teams mastermind from the Wings…
Keep an eye out for players responding to the iron fist of coach Joe Sacco. Chris Stewart was sent down today and Wolski was silently benched for the third period in the Wings game. Mum was the word on the benching, but one can only assume it relates to Wolski’s spotty performances. Not that this is a bad thing, because we certainly are winning and the players are certainly responding, but remember what happened with short-lived Tampa bay coach Barry Melrose last year. Fired after 16 games, many players stated that Melrose was too hard to handle and was too much of a dictator.
**For the record, I called his first career goal being against the Red Wings to multiple sources last week!
Related posts:
- 2010 Colorado Avalanche Training Camp
- Canucks Blank Avalanche 3-0
- Avalanche Sweep Blue Jackets
- Avs Finish Year On Sour Note
- Avalanche Outwork Preds 2-1
Email Post | 
Print Post 
Loading ...